Monthly Archives: December 2017

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Out with the old and in with the new…well, sort of. The new year brings new entries, removal of some old entries and corrections/clarifications of existing entries. Thanks to those who throughout the year have made suggestions to add, remove and correct/clarify. Keep them coming!

Monetary Literacy has never been more important and urgent. The current financial system, if not economy, is unlike anything ever experienced in human history due to globalization, computerization, integration, corporatization and speculation. Bubbles are everywhere. Sound, rational, just and sustainable economies are nowhere. Monetary policies have distorted economies, contributed to massive wealth inequality, corrupted public policies and further plundered the planet.

The coming economic/financial “correction” will be extreme, widespread (i.e. international) and have not simply economic, but political, social, psychological, and spiritual implications. This is inevitable.

To be literate about the mess we’re in, how we got here, its roots, and proposed sane and humane alternatives is vital for those wishing to be compassionate and powerful change agents. While the coming economic/financial “correction” is inevitable, the depth and breadth of the hardship as we move toward a world that is more just, democratic and sustainable is in large part a function of what we do now with others to educate, advocate and organize. We must take control of our economy and our money system from people (of all political parties in virtually every nation) who have 100% clearly demonstrated they are incapable of ruling with the interests of the vast majority of people — and the natural world — in mind.

Being more monetarily literate is just the first step, but an essential one.

Onward!

p.s. Thanks to all those who responded to our financial appeal!

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DECEMBER 31

1781 – BANK OF NORTH AMERICA CHARTERED BY US GOVERNMENT
This was the nation’s first private commercial bank. The Articles of Confederation was the nation’s constitution at that time. Article 9 of the Articles gave Congress the power to “emit bills of credit” — to create money. By a single vote, Congress voted to willingly transfer their authority to issue money to The Bank of North America when it chartered the bank on December 31. Thus, the Bank served as a quasi-national central bank. Why did Congress willingly give up their money power? The public argument was that the business of finance could not be ably conduced by a public body (Congress) — only by a small number of private financiers. The first head of the Bank was Robert Morris, the richest merchant in America. This same argument against public issuance of money is made today – a public body can’t be trusted to create and distribute our nation’s money supply. The result is the creation and distribution of our nation’s money supply by banking corporations.

1935 – “MONOPOLY” BOARD GAME PATENTED BY U.S. GOVERNMENT
“The Bank never ‘goes broke.’ If the Bank runs out of money, the Banker may issue as much more as needed by writing on any ordinary paper.” – Monopoly board game rule book
This is how it works in real life too, thanks to the US government having handed over to banking corporations the license to issue money when they make loans. This creates money as debt, which must be repaid with interest. The alternative is the US government creating the money it needs interest-free and debt-free as stipulated in the United States Constitution, Article 1, Section 8.

1980 – DEATH OF MARSHALL MCLUHAN, CANADIAN PHILOSOPHER OF COMMUNICATION THEORY
“Only the small secrets need to be protected. The big ones are kept secret by public incredulity.”
This certainly applies to money creation. Most people are unwilling to believe that the vast majority of money created and circulated in our society is done privately by financial interests.

JANUARY 1 1817 – SECOND NATIONAL BANK OF THE US OPENS This was the third quasi national bank of the former British colonies — following the Bank of North America (1781-1785, charterd by the Continental Congress) and Bank of the United States (1791-1811, chartered by the US Congress). While called a “national” bank, it was not public but actually a commercial/corporate bank with the power to issue money directly (just like its two predecessors). It issued initially 20 times more money than it had in reserve its reserves as loans. This led to financial speculation and large corporate profits. A year later, it stopped issuing loans, resulting in a severe contraction of the money supply — which led to massive bankruptcies and the Panic of 1819. President Andrew Jackson believed the bank was a threat to the nation. He vetoed a bill in 1832 renewing the bank’s charter (license).

1879 – DATE TO REDEEM GREENBACKS FOR GOLD
Forces in opposition to public money passed the Resumption Act in 1875. It established January 1, 1879 as the date anyone could redeem federal Greenbacks for gold. Greenbacks were debt free money created by the Lincoln administration in his effort to avoid borrowing money from banks and having to pay interest. Why not simply create the money as stipulated in the Constitution (Art 1, Sec 8 giving the government the authority to coin money)? Bankers hoped most Greenbacks would be turned in – so that they could once more exclusively control the issuance and circulation of paper money – at enormous profit. Doomsayers predicted as Greenbacks were redeemed for gold, the nation would go bankrupt. Neither occurred. Only $135,000 in Greenbacks was exchanged for gold – nationwide. Meanwhile, $400,000 gold was exchanged for Greenbacks. The New York Daily Tribune called the day, “the grandest page in the history of the United States.”
1911 – US POSTAL SAVINGS SYSTEM OPENS The Postal Savings System was established to provide basic banking services to the common working person. Often located in places that had no commercial banks, postal banks offered basic savings accounts to depositors, but no loans. When banks failed after the Great Depression, many people shifted their remaining funds. With post officers serving as bank branches, the Postal Savings System held upwards of 20% of the nation’s savings in the mid 1940’s with over 4 million depositors. Commercial/corporate banks lobbied against their expansion and for their elimination — which occurred in 1967.

1999 – EURO INTRODUCED
The euro replaced the national currencies of the majority of European Union nations. It was first introduced as an accounting currency (e.g. travelers cheques, electronic transfers). Euro coins and paper notes began circulating three years later. The European Central Bank controls the flow of euros, similar to the flow of dollars controlled by the Federal Reserve Bank in the U.S. In both cases, however, the “central” banks are largely private entities. The euro came under harsh criticism in 2012 as many people in many nations began to understand that the loss of national currencies equated to a loss of national sovereignty. The public influence over a nation’s money supply is still greater by having a national currency (even if issued by a private national central bank) vs a continent-wide currency controlled by a private continent-wide central bank.

JANUARY 2

1909 – BIRTH OF BARRY GOLDWATER, FORMER REPUBLICAN SENATOR FROM ARIZONA
“The Trilateralist Commission is international…(and)…is intended to be the vehicle for multinational consolidation of commercial and banking interests by seizing control of the political government of the U.S. The Trilateralist Commission represents a skillful, coordinated effort to seize control and consolidate the four centers of power-political, monetary, intellectual and ecclesiastical.”
JANUARY 3

1928 – UNITED STATES SHIPPING BOARD EMERGENCY FLEET CORPORATION v. WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH CO. [275 U.S. 415]
The U.S. Supreme Court stated the following in this decision regarding federal reserve banks: “Instrumentalities like the national banks or the federal reserve banks, in which there are private interests, are not departments of the government. They are private corporations in which the government has an interest.” 1977 – DEATH OF CARROLL QUIGLEY, PROFESSOR AND HISTORIAN “The influence of financial capitalism and of the international bankers who created it was exercised both on business and on governments, but could have done neither if it had not been able to persuade both these to accept two ‘axioms’ of its own ideology…by basing the value of money on gold and by allowing bankers to control the supply of money. To do this it was necessary to conceal, or even mislead, both governments and people about the nature of money and its methods of operation.” (From his book, Tragedy and Hope)

JANUARY 4

1643 – BIRTH OF SIR. ISAAC NEWTON, ENGLISH PHYSICIST AND MATHEMATICAN – FORMULATED UNIVERSAL LAW OF GRAVITATION
Governments have transferred their authority to create money to private financial institutions (including central banks) that have used this power to create money out of thin air as debt when they issue loans. Debt is like financial gravity in weighing down governments (which must repay the principle plus interest), citizens (who must pay more in taxes to cover interest payments) and the economy in general (via transfers of money from investing in producing real goods and services to the financial sector that produces nothing). The larger or heavier the debt, the less ability ultimately of governments, citizens and the economy to move and act freely.

JANUARY 5 1066 – DEATH OF KING EDWARD THE CONFESSOR Calling usury (interest) the root of evil, the English King declared all those who charged usury outlaws and banished them from the country.

2015 – INTERVIEW OF RICHARD FISHER, FORMER PRESIDENT & CEO OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF DALLAS
“The Federal Reserve is a giant weapon that has no ammunition left…
“You have to be careful here and frank about what drove the markets…. It was, the Fed, the Fed, the Fed, the European Central Bank, the Japanese Central bank … all quantitatively driven by central bank activity. That’s not the way markets should be working…. They were juiced up by central banks, including the Federal Reserve…. So, I think you have to acknowledge reality.”

JANUARY 6

2014 – JANET YELLEN CONFIRMED AS FIRST WOMAN TO LEAD THE FEDERAL RESERVE
The U.S. Senate confirmed Yellen to lead the Federal Reserve, the private central bank of the U.S. The vote was 56-26. She replaced Ben Bernanke.
“Central bank independence in conducting monetary policy is considered a best practice for central banks around the world,” she said. “Academic studies, I think, establish beyond the shadow of a doubt that independent central banks perform better.”http://thehill.com/policy/finance/233616-yellen-i-strongly-oppose-bill-to-audit-the-fed
Yellen presents a picture that the U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve, is independent, which it is not.

2016 – PUBLISHED ARTICLE, “IS THE WHOLE THEORY OF SECULAR STAGNATION A HOAX?”
“Money and debt contracts are social conventions. They can be torn up, or reinvented. When we go into the next global downturn – perhaps in 2017 – we may have to resort to an entirely different form of QE. The next step is to print money to fund state spending directly, and probably behind capital constraints in a less “globalized” world.”http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/12083682/Is-the-whole-theory-of-secular-stagnation-a-hoax.html
[Note: Actually, an entirely different option is available not when the next global economic downturn occurs — perhaps in 2018. Instead of borrowing money created by central banks in the form of “Quantitative Easing” (QE), nation-states can create their own debt-free money. In the US, that’s authorized by Article I, Sec 8 of the U.S. Constitution.]

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Why this calendar? Many people have questions about the root causes of our economic problems. Some questions involve money, banks and debt. How is money created? Why do banks control its quantity? How has the money system been used to liberate (not often) and oppress (most often) us? And how can the money system be “democratized” to rebuild our economy and society, create jobs and reduce debt? Our goal is to inform, intrigue and inspire through bite size weekly postings listing important events and quotes from prominent individuals (both past and present) on money, banking and how the money system can help people and the planet. We hope the sharing of bits of buried history will illuminate monetary and banking issues and empower you with others to create real economic and political justice. This calendar is the original project of the Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee. Adele Looney, Phyllis Titus, Donna Schall, Leah Davis, Alice Francini, Deb Jose and Greg Coleridge helped in its development. It is currently updated by Greg Coleridge. Please forward this to others and encourage them to subscribe. To subscribe/unsubscribe or to comment on any entry, email monetarycalendar@yahoo.com
To see the calendar year-to-date, go to https://monetarycalendar.wordpress.com/
A second historical calendar, the REAL Democracy History Calendar, in many ways complements this calendar. For information, go to https://realdemocracyhistorycalendar.wordpress.com/about/

1294 – PAPACY OF POPE BONIFACE VIII BEGINS
Benedetto Gaetani became Pope of the Catholic Church on Christmas Eve, 1294. He instituted the first Christian “Jubilee” in 1300. Jubilee has both Jewish and Christian roots. According to Wikipedia, “The concept of the Jubilee is a special year of remission of sins and universal pardon. In the Biblical Book of Leviticus, a Jubilee year is mentioned to occur every fifty years, in which slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgiven and the mercies of God would be particularly manifest.” It was also common for land to be returned. Pope Boniface VIII conditioned the forgiving of sins and debt on personal confessions and pilgrimages to sacred sites (i.e. basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul in Rome) at least once a day for a specified time.

DECEMBER 25

2017 YEARS AGO – CELEBRATED BIRTH DATE OF JESUS
In his book, Money and its True Function, author FR Burch said, “As long as Christ confined his teachings to the realm of morality and righteousness, He was undisturbed; it was not till He assailed the established economic system and ‘cast out’ the profiteers and ‘overthrew the tables of the money changers,’ that He was doomed. The following day He was questioned, betrayed on the second tried on the third and on the fourth crucified.”

1833 – BIRTH OF MARK “BRICK” POMEROY, NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER, CURRENCY REFORMER AND ORGANIZER OF “GREENBACK CLUBS”
At the national Greenback Party convention in 1876, Pomeroy was named chairman of a committee to coordinate the activities of local Greenback clubs across the country. The clubs served as forums for monetary education and mobilization on behalf of the Greenback Party. During his leadership, Pomeroy claimed almost 6000 clubs had been chartered: the most in Missouri, followed by Illinois. Michigan, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Texas and New York.

1983 – DEATH OF ROBERT H. HEMPHILL, CREDIT MANAGER, ATLANTA FEDERAL RESERVE BANK
“This is a staggering thought. We are completely dependent on the Commercial Banks. Someone has to borrow every dollar we have in circulation, cash or credit. If the Banks create ample synthetic money, we are prosperous; if not, we starve. We are absolutely without a permanent money system. When one gets a complete grasp of the picture, the tragic absurdity of our hopeless position is almost incredible, but there it is.
2014 – “LINKING SOCIAL JUSTICE TO MONETARY REFORM” BY NICK EGNATZ ARTICLE POSTED
“Social Justice is the struggle to make society work for the vast majority of people. The comprehensive monetary reform of the NEED Act is the necessary first step on the path to realization of this struggle. The following ten points are the major social issues in which I will try to link social justice with monetary reform.”http://www.alpheus.org/linking-social-justice-to-monetary-reform/

DECEMBER 26

2017 – “BOXING DAY”
An annual holiday celebrated in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth nations. Traditionally, it was when servants or employees would receive gifts from their bosses or employers in “Christmas boxes.” Granting business corporations the power to create and distribute money has been the ultimate financial gift that keeps on giving every time banks create a loan “out of thin air” as debt. The lack of awareness in mainstream society of this current monetary reality and alternatives proposals to democratize money creation boxes, or limits, us as self-governing people to use the authority granted to our government to create our own money to distribute funds where we, not banks, believe are most needed.

DECEMBER 27

1945 – IMF AND WORLD BANK “ARTICLES OF AGREEMENT” ENTERED INFO FORCE
The original International Monetary Fund Articles of Agreement were adopted at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference at Bretton Woods, NH on July 22, 1944. They were entered into force on this date. Both institutions have used their “money power” of loan making to dictate financial and economic conditions on governments around the world.

DECEMBER 28

1856 – BIRTH OF WOODROW WILSON, 28TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNTIED STATES
“The great monopoly in this country is the monopoly of big credits. So long as that exists, our old variety and freedom and individual energy of development are out of the question. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is privately concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men who, even if their action be honest and intended for the public interest, are necessarily concentrated upon the great undertakings in which their own money is involved and who necessarily, by very reason of their own limitations, chill and check and destroy genuine economic freedom.”http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14811/14811-h/14811-h.htm

1947 – BIRTH OF SPENCER BACHUS, CONGRESSPERSON, ALABAMA, REPUBLICAN CHAIR OF THE HOUSE FINANCIAL SERVICES COMMITTEE
“In Washington, the view is that the banks are to be regulated and my view is that Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks.”

2013 — DEATH OF MARGRIT KENNEDY, AUTHOR OF OCCUPY MONEY
“At present, we’re stuck in the near vertical part of the exponential growth curve of money assets and debt. In nature the organism harboring this diseased growth would be on the verge of death. Can we even grasp that we’ve lost control — that we don’t rule this system, but it rules us? We need a transition process in which the creative power of money issuance is transferred to new institution that will use this power to benefit society, thereby ending the continuation of our compulsive, boundless expansion of money and debt. Only via a transition of this sort can we initiate a peaceful, evolutionary process that will lead us out of the crisis.”

DECEMBER 29

1809 – BIRTH OF WILLIAM GLADSTONE, CHIEF BRITISH FINANCE MINISTER AND FOUR-TIME BRITISH PRIME MINISTER
“From the time I took office as Chancellor of the Exchequer, I began to learn that the State held, in the face of the Bank and the City, an essentially false position as to finance. The Government itself was not to be a substantive power, but was to leave the Money Power supreme and unquestioned.”
[Note: the Chancellor of the Exchequer is the equivalent to the role of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the Treasury in other nations.]

Why this calendar? Many people have questions about the root causes of our economic problems. Some questions involve money, banks and debt. How is money created? Why do banks control its quantity? How has the money system been used to liberate (not often) and oppress (most often) us? And how can the money system be “democratized” to rebuild our economy and society, create jobs and reduce debt? Our goal is to inform, intrigue and inspire through bite size weekly postings listing important events and quotes from prominent individuals (both past and present) on money, banking and how the money system can help people and the planet. We hope the sharing of bits of buried history will illuminate monetary and banking issues and empower you with others to create real economic and political justice. This calendar is the original project of the Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee. Adele Looney, Phyllis Titus, Donna Schall, Leah Davis, Alice Francini, Deb Jose and Greg Coleridge helped in its development. It is currently updated by Greg Coleridge. Please forward this to others and encourage them to subscribe. To subscribe/unsubscribe or to comment on any entry, email monetarycalendar@yahoo.com
To see the calendar year-to-date, go to https://monetarycalendar.wordpress.com/
A second historical calendar, the REAL Democracy History Calendar, in many ways complements this calendar. For information, go to https://realdemocracyhistorycalendar.wordpress.com/about/

Fitting that the Republicans rammed through Congress the most pro-corporate and pro-wealthy tax bill in at least the last three decades on the eve of the darkest day of the year. I’m convinced, however, that this blatant overreach of greed and power will spark not only a transformative degree of resistance to injustice from this point forward, but also movement for positive fundamental political and economic alternatives. On this Winter Solstice, let the ray of light that we shine be a symbol of the earth’s turning toward greater physical light, but also our own light for truth, compassion and sharing our light with that of others to both resist and transform. Peace, Love and Light!

Ohio’s own Rob Portman is among the bunch of GOP Senators who will personally benefit from the inclusion of this nifty provision that was not in either the original House or Senate version of the tax bill. And who was one of the Senators on the conference committee that reconciled both versions in a single one soon to be voted on by both the House and Senate? Why, Rob Portman!

Rob also received a cool $900,000 from real estate industry Political Action Committees (PACs) in the 2016 election cycle. So Rob both helped his political donors (more like investors) AND helped himself at the same time.

Republican Senators Will Save Millions With Special Real-Estate Tax Break

An already horrific tax bill for the working class and those who rely on federal subsidies for medical insurance may get even worse if Sen. Portman and his Republican buddies have their way and reduce the number of years individual tax reductions will last — to pay for more taxes for businesses. Of course, taxes for corporations plummet under this bill and the estate tax, benefiting the super wealthy, would also be drastically reduced in the Senate version (with the first $22 million exempted) and abolished altogether in the House version. Call Portman office today and share your views. 216-522-7095